What to Avoid in Mosquito Country

Mosquitoes are bothersome pests with nearly a worldwide distribution. Many people try a lot of things to repel or kill mosquitoes every year, with varying levels of success. The problem is that people often don’t know what to avoid if mosquitoes are a problem.

Overview of mosquitoes

Mosquitoes are true flies and while it is a fact that only the female mosquitoes bite, there can be so many of them that at times they can seem nearly impossible to avoid, especially if you are outside.

Since these insects lay their eggs in water and the larval stage lives in water, mosquitoes are prone to be most numerous when there is a great deal of shallow water in an area. This means that even in the far north, mosquitoes become serious pests during the brief time of year that ice melts and forms marshy puddles of water over permafrost. For example, in some locations in Alaska, the mosquitoes can be so thick that they look like smoke. These definitely aren’t just creatures of the tropics and subtropics.

They can also be dangerous. More people have died from mosquitoes than because of any other animal. To be more precise, mosquitoes are often vectors for disease. Malaria, encephalitis, and Zita are just three of the diseases they are known to carry.

Mosquito sense of smell

Many people wonder how mosquitoes home in on their target. There are a number of ways that this is done and sense of smell is one of them.

Mosquitoes can actually smell carbon dioxide. That might seem surprising, but it is a very understandable and useful adaptation. In order for the females to produce eggs, they must have protein-rich blood. That normally comes from warm-blooded animals. One trait that warm-blooded animals share is that they exhale carbon dioxide. Thus, this adaptation allows mosquitoes to home in on their food supply.

Naturally, little can be done to avoid breathing out CO2. However, if you are exerting yourself and breathing heavily, you are more likely to be targeted.

Sweet smells

It doesn’t end with carbon dioxide, though. Mosquitoes are also drawn to sweet smells. That includes the smell of perfume, cologne, body wash, as well as scented soaps, deodorants, lotions, and creams. If you apply the scents to your body, even in amounts so small that you can’t smell them, you stand out to a mosquito like a bright neon light on a dark night. If you don’t want to get bitten by mosquitoes, avoid sweet scents.

Potassium

Mosquitoes are drawn to the smell of potassium, too. When you sweat, you exude both potassium and sodium, which the mosquitoes can smell. Sweating is usually unavoidable. However, some foods contain a great deal of potassium and if you eat them, your sweat will likely contain more potassium.

One of the biggest culprits in this regard is bananas. Bananas not only smell sweet, they are very high in potassium. A person who has just eaten some bananas or who is eating them is much more likely to be bothered by mosquitoes than someone who isn’t and hasn’t.

A mosquito’s sense of smell can work in your favor, though. There are some aromas that mosquitoes don’t like. Among the most repellent are citrus smells and the smell of garlic. Citronella-based repellent candles work because of the citrus odor. As for garlic, this is one of the strongest mosquito repellents that work due to the aroma.

Mosquito eyesight

Mosquitoes have surprisingly good eyesight, at least within about 20-40 feet. They can see motion within that range, especially if the moving object has a dark color. This means that you can lessen the number of bites by wearing light-colored clothing.

Other attractants

As already mentioned, mosquitoes are drawn to the smell of potassium in our sweat. They are also drawn to the moisture in the sweat and are very sensitive to moisture. They need to be sensitive to moisture in order to find water to lay their eggs in.

They are also attracted to body heat. Warm-blooded animals like humans produce body heat.

This can actually be helpful to know. Not that many people go out of their way to exert themselves during the heat of the day, but this should still be avoided. If a person works out when it is hot, they sweat, breath out more CO2, and there is often an increase in body temperature. A mosquito can detect even a small increase in temperature.

If there are a huge number of mosquitoes, it becomes quite difficult to keep from being bitten. However, you do have it within your power to help limit the number of bites. Simply by wearing light-colored clothing, avoiding bananas and other sweet smelling foods that are high in potassium, avoiding putting anything on your skin that has a sweet smell, and avoiding doing anything that will make you sweat more, you should lessen the number of mosquito bites.

12 Comments

Very interesting piece, Rex. Although we don’t suffer with mosquitoes here in Ireland at all, I have spent a lot of time in places where they were prevalent. In my experience they are inactive during the day, but that may not be the case in more northern latitudes like Alaska and Finland. You’ve provided lots of good information I wish I’d known in the last!

Around here, the mosquitos are thick from the evening until mid-morning, when the chill has burned off. They are still around after that but mostly stay in the shadows and under leaves. It stands to reason. During the heat of the day, it becomes harder to tell the difference in temperature between a mammal and something that has been warmed by the sun. Also, when the sun is shining, the plants start photosynthesizing and to do that, they draw in CO2. That increases the amount that is around the plants and makes it harder to detect the carbon dioxide breathed out by a mammal.

Want a good mosquito repellent? Take me along with you. No one will get touched if I am in the crowd. Probably being diabetic doesn’t help. I use DEET, I have to.. STill they will fly on my and get stuck in the oil..

I’ve gotten in the habit of eating raw garlic in the days just before and during camping trips. The garlic oil is exuded in sweat when the garlic is digested. It helps me a lot, though I don’t smell as if I’ve rubbed garlic oil all over myself.

There is a lot of truth in that. Scientists are still trying to discover why mosquitoes tend to be drawn to some people and not to others, though. Diet probably has a great deal to do with it, but metabolism most likely does, too, and that is different for every person.